


Explorer in the Shell

by NazoFox2501



Category: Dora the Explorer (Cartoon), Ghost in the Shell (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Cybercrimes, Cybernetics, Gen, Mind Control, Mind Manipulation, Parody, Puppeteer, SIMEX, Simulated reality, Tragedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-27
Updated: 2018-03-27
Packaged: 2019-04-13 20:47:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14120487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NazoFox2501/pseuds/NazoFox2501
Summary: Dora believed her life as an explorer was reality, but one day, that reality was shattered.  All that remained was just another discarded puppet by the Puppet Master.





	Explorer in the Shell

**Author's Note:**

> The first seasons of "Dora the Explorer" were presented like it was a computer game. Thinking that and watching the 1995 "Ghost in the Shell" gave birth to this strange idea.

The rainforest was beautiful today, as it was yesterday, and as it will be tomorrow. Standing outside of a house was a little Latina girl, who wore a pink shirt, orange shorts, and a purple backpack. She carried a basket full of cookies and jars of different kinds of jam in her tiny hand. She walked away from her house and stopped in front of a tree.

From the branches, a light purple monkey with a yellow stomach swung down and landed next to the girl. The one thing that made the monkey stand out the most, save for its unusual coloring, was that he wore red boots on his feet. Both he and the little girl looked in no particular direction and they gave friendly smiles.

" _Hola!_ " The girl said to no one. " _Soy Dora!_ "

"And I'm Boots!" The monkey waved at the air.

"Say," Dora said, "do you like sweets?"

No one answered, but Dora and her monkey companion could hear a chorus of children crying out "Yes!"

"I love sweets!" Boots rubbed his stomach and licked his lips.

"Me too!" Dora stared at the background and told it, "Today, we're going to deliver cookies and jam to my _Abuela_."

The girl and the monkey peered into the basket and they simultaneously said, "Mmmm, cookies and jam!"

They started walking forward, but Boots suddenly stopped and asked, "But Dora, where is _Abuela's_ house?"

"Let's stop and think." Dora stopped next to Boots. She asked the air, "Who do we ask for help when we don't know which way to go?"

They heard the imaginary kids cry out "The Map!" Boots jumped up into the air and chanted, "The Map! The Map!"

"The Map, right." Dora confirmed. She twisted her body to show the background a side pocket in her backpack. Sticking out of that side pocket was a roll of white paper. She said, "I need your help. Will you check the Map for me? Say 'Map'!"

"Say 'Map'! Say 'Map'!" Boots urged the invisible crowd of kids.

A pair of eyes appeared on the roll of paper and peeked out. Dora told the air, "Louder!"

The Map jumped out of the side pocket and landed on the ground in front of Dora and Boots. It hopped around, singing "I'm the Map" like a broken record several dozen times before it stopped and said, "Hola! Dora and Boots need to get to _Abuela's_ house, but they don't know how to get there. Well, _I_ do! First," it unrolled itself, showing an overly simple layout, "you cross the Troll Bridge, then you go through the Wild Jungle, then you'll finally reach _Abuela's_ house!" It rolled back up. "Now remember: Bridge, Jungle, _Abuela's_ house! Say it with me!" It chanted the four words over and over like a holy mantra before it jumped back into the side pocket of the backpack.

As if she did not see and heard what had just happened before her eyes, Dora asked the nonexistent audience, "How do we get to _Abuela's_ house?"

After receiving a silent answer, she chanted, "Bridge, Jungle, _Abuela's_ house. First, we cross the Troll Bridge, then go through the Wild Jungle, and then we'll reach _Abuela's_ house. Where do we go first?"

Though no one else could hear it, she and Boots could hear kids saying "the Bridge!" She said, "The Bridge, right, the Troll Bridge."

Dora and Boots took a few steps forward, and then stopped again. Dora asked the sky, "Where is the Troll Bridge?"

Both she and Boots were completely unaware that the bridge was behind them. It took a few seconds for their imaginary audience to point the bridge out. They both turned around, with Boots pointing at the bridge and saying, "There it is!"

"Right!" Dora nodded. " _Vamanos!_ Let's go!"

They both trotted towards the bridge, all the while chanting "Bridge, Jungle, Abuela's house" and singing "Come on, _Vamanos_ , everybody let's go. Come on let's get to it, I know that we can do it". After their little song, they finally arrived at the little blue bridge. As soon as they stepped on it, however, a yellow hairball suddenly swung up from underneath the bridge and stood in front of the duo. The hairball had arms, legs, eyes, and a long, orange beard.

In song, it identified itself as the Grumpy Old Troll that lived under the bridge, and that he would not let anyone pass unless they solved his riddle. He offered his riddle, which was this: what was round, bouncy, and fun to play with? Even someone younger than Dora could answer this with ease, yet she and Boots actually had to think it over. With the help of kids they thought were there, they answered "ball". With the correct answer said, the Troll was forced to let the duo pass.

When they did cross the bridge, for some bizarre reason, a snail, a frog, and a grasshopper with musical instruments suddenly jumped out of a bush, played a short tune, then jumped back in. No one questioned what had just happened, but Boots asked Dora, "Where do we go next?"

Once more, Dora chanted, "Bridge, Jungle, _Abuela's_ house. We went over the Troll Bridge, so next is…?"

Silence. Dora said, "The Jungle, right, the Wild Jungle."

Dora and Boots continued on their way, asking their imaginary child audience where the jungle was (behind them, of course) before they walked towards it. They sang their short-term memory song while they were walking to the Jungle. When they were almost there, however, they suddenly heard a rustling in the bushes.

"Did you hear that?" Dora asked Boots. "That sounds like Swiper the Fox."

"That sneaky fox is always trying to swipe our stuff!" Boots told the kids he thought were present. "He'll try to swipe _Abuela's_ goodies!"

"If you see Swiper," Dora told the invisible children, "say 'Swiper'!"

As soon as she said that, a fox wearing a blue bandit's mask and blue gloves jumped out of the bush. Even when he was two feet away from Dora's basket, she and Boots did not notice him. Dora stared in a random direction and asked, "What's that? You see Swiper? Where?"

She and Boots turned their heads and spotted the fox. Time seemed to freeze as Dora instructed the background, "Help us stop Swiper. Say 'Swiper no swiping'!"

Dora and Boots held their arms forward, palms upwards. As the fox tiptoed towards the basket, the duo chanted "Swiper no swiping" three times. As if the words had a binding effect, the fox stopped, snapped his fingers in frustration, and muttered, "Aw man!" before running off.

When the fox was gone, the duo cheered and thanked the air for helping them. They soon came to the Wild Jungle, and they came across a sign with pictures on it. The sign had a picture of a crocodile, a snake, and a spider on it, but there were no words to go with them. Nevertheless, Dora managed to interpret the sign: beware of crocodiles, snakes, and spiders. Despite these warnings, they still went in the jungle.

The jungle had red and blue paths and, for some reason, the duo failed to notice the paths that had the crocodiles, snakes, and spiders on the ends. Dora asked the trees for help, and decided that, in the midst of danger, now was a good time for a Spanish lesson. She wanted the trees to call out either _rojo_ or _azul_ , so that they would know which path was safe to cross. After receiving unspoken words, they made it through the Wild Jungle without any trouble.

Once more, the three little creatures with their musical instruments popped out from behind a rock, played a little tune, then jumped back behind it. Boots asked Dora, "Where do we go next?"

Dora chanted the memory mantra and, with help from the background, she determined that their last stop was _Abuela's_ house. They made their way to the house, but halfway there, they saw a rain cloud with eyes approaching them. They needed something to protect them from the rain, but they had nothing…or so one would think.

"I need your help." Dora told the sky. "Will you check my backpack for anything that will protect us from the rain? Great! Say 'Backpack'!"

"Say 'Backpack'! Say 'Backpack'!" Boots urged to no one.

Eyes appeared on the backpack and it jumped off of Dora's back. It danced on the ground and let a flurry of miscellaneous objects fly out of its flap. It sang "Backpack, Backpack" over and over as the items somehow sorted themselves out. Among them, there were a yo-yo, a teddy bear, an umbrella, swimming flippers, a lollipop, and a winter coat (it was the season of summer at the time).

The Backpack told no one, " _Hola!_ I have lots of stuff, but Dora needs something to protect her and Boots from the rain. Will a teddy bear protect them from the rain? Will a lollipop protect them from the rain? Will an umbrella protect them from the rain? _Si! Muy bien!_ " All the items except for the umbrella rose into the air and somehow stuffed themselves back inside Backpack, to which it said, "Yum yum yum yum yum, _delicioso_!"

The umbrella somehow flew into Dora's spare hand and she opened it up. She and Boots cowered underneath the umbrella as the rain cloud came and tried to shower them with cold rain. When it saw that its efforts were futile, it drifted away with a frown on its face. When it was out of sight, Dora closed the umbrella and put it back in her Backpack. Both girl and monkey continued their walk to _Abuela's_ house.

Finally, they had arrived at the house. Dora ran on ahead, opened the door, and went into the living room. Waiting for her in a rocking chair was an elderly woman in a yellow dress. She reached her arms for the girl and said with a smile on her face, "Dora, you came!"

"I brought you some sweets, _Abuela_." Dora said as she jumped into her grandmother's open arms.

" _Gracias_ , Dora." The two family members hugged each other warmly.

Dora was the happiest girl in the rainforest. Every day, she and Boots would go on adventures, whether it was to help out friends in need or to just simply visit family. In the end, everything would turn out great, and nothing bad would ever really happen. This was her reality, and she deeply believed in it. Yes, even a simple, childish fantasy could become a reality if one believes in it enough.

But now there is no longer a need to keep her in this reality; this puppet had failed her task.

Without warning, several hands suddenly grabbed Dora from behind and yanked her away from her _Abuela_. Before her eyes, her reality shattered. She was no longer in a bright and cheery house, but in a dull, dreary office room. Where her _Abuela_ once sat, there was now a different looking elderly woman with a look of surprise on her wrinkled face.

Dora turned her head and saw that two men in suits were holding her tightly by the shoulders. She looked around frantically for her friend Boots, but the monkey was nowhere to be seen. She struggled to break free, but she was but a child, and could do nothing in the grip of these men.

"What are you doing?" The woman in the chair exclaimed. "Let go of my granddaughter!"

"Don't you see what she tried to do?" One of the men snapped back.

"Let go!" Dora struggled. She now looked around for her imaginary child friends, but they were nowhere to be found. She cried out, " _Amigos_! Where are you?"

One man grabbed her hand, the one that once held the basket of cookies and jam, and took something out of her clenched fist. He held it up for the old woman to see. The object was a very thin cylindrical piece of metal with a computer jack on one end: the Direct Hacking unit that I had provided her. The woman's eyes widened and she barely whispered, "No. It can't be."

The other man hoisted Dora over his shoulder and started to walk off with her. She struggled and pounded her little fists on the man's back, but nothing helped. All she could really do was cry, " _Ayudeme!_ "

It is unfortunate that she did not manage to plug the unit into Anna Marquez's cyberbrain. I fled to South America in an attempt to flee Japan's Section 6, but my presence became known quickly by South America's Section 6, who happened to work closely with the Japanese division. I was to have the girl install the unit into the cyberbrain of the head of South America's Section 6 so that I would obtain their plans for me, but in the end, that plan has failed. Either way, whether she managed to do it or not, her role is now over, and I must leave. South America's Section 6 will figure out that I was the one who implanted the SIMEX in this girl, and they will most likely contact Japan's Section 6 as soon as possible.

Besides, I must arrange a meeting with a certain cyborg in Japan's Section 9.

***

Though a one-way window, a man and a woman watched as the psychologist in the other room talked with their daughter. From a loudspeaker, they could hear the conversation they were having. They had no idea that something like this would ever happen to them.

Yesterday, their daughter, Dora, suddenly vanished on her way home to school. They immediately suspected kidnapping, so they contacted the police. They searched everywhere, but Dora was not found until the next day. A few hours ago, Dora arrived at the headquarters of South America's Section 6 department. She managed to bypass the secretary, saying that she wanted to see her grandmother, who was the current leader of the department. Seeing her as just an innocent child, the secretary foolishly thought that nothing suspicious was going on, and she sent her on up.

When Dora arrived at her grandmother's office, she immediately ran into her arms. The woman's bodyguards saw something in the girl's hand, so their protective instincts kicked in and they pulled her away from her grandmother. Their actions proved to be correct, as the girl had a Direct Hacking unit in her hand. How she got hold of such a deadly, illegal device, no one would really ever know.

Several official channels later, Section 6 confirmed that Dora had been under the influence of a SIMEX. Judging by the use of SIMEX, the archaic model of the Direct Hacking unit, and the attack against a higher up of Section 6, they confirmed that the terrorist, the Puppet Master, was behind the attempted attack on Anna Marquez. However, though they had a suspect, they had no idea what his or her motivation was.

Dora's parents were contacted, and they were distraught. They had taken their daughter in for a partial cyberbrain transplant a few months ago, and just recently, some madman came and hacked her for his own mysterious purposes. They were not told about the Puppet Master being behind this hack, as it was considered to be top secret information. What the officials did tell them was that Dora was an unfortunate victim of a hack and that she had tried to plug a Direct Hacking unit into her own grandmother. Now, Section 6 had hired a psychologist to talk to the child, to see if they could find any clues.

"Tell me," the psychologist said to Dora, "before you found yourself in your grandmother's office, what do you remember?"

"She's not my _abuela_!" Dora kept telling him. "She looks nothing like my _abuela_!"

"Well, what about before then? What can you tell me?"

"Boots and I were going to _Abuela's_ house so that I could give her cookies and jam."

"Boots? Who is Boots?"

"Boots the monkey; he's my best friend. We've grown up in the rainforest together for a long time."

"A long time? Can you tell me how long you grew up with Boots?"

" _Mami_ told me that Boots and I have been friends since I was three."

A grim look appeared on the psychologist's face. The mother lowered her head into her hands in disbelief. Just what _had_ this psychopath done to her daughter?

The conversation continued for several minutes. According to Dora's story, she had grown up in the rainforest all her life with her family and talking animal friends. Since she turned seven, she went on adventures and explored many places with her best friend, Boots, and that along the way, she made many friends with children who wanted nothing more than to play with her. When she finished telling her story, she asked the psychologist, "Where am I? Where are my friends?"

The psychologist bit his lower lip. The truth would go over Dora's head, so he told her, "You know that young children like you have overactive imaginations, right? Well, all of your adventures have been in your imagination this whole time."

"No they're not!" Dora shouted. "The rainforest is real! My adventures are real! My friends and family are real!"

"Dora, you were so caught up in your imaginary game, you forgot about your real life with your real family and friends. I understand this is hard for you to understand-."

"No! I don't believe you!"

The conversation went on for several more minutes, with no successful results. Afterwards, the psychologist left Dora in the room and came out to talk to the parents. He shook his head, sighed, and said, "The SIMEX has done a lot of damage to her mind. She might be able to recover from it because of her age, but I am not certain if she will heal completely or not. In all of my years, I have never come across a SIMEX case in a child her age."

"SIMEX?" The mother asked. "What does that mean?"

"It stands for SIMulated EXperience. Basically, a person is trapped in a dreamlike state, unaware of where they really are or what they are doing. Though she had only been missing for a day, Dora believes that she has lived her entire life in an imaginary rainforest with talking animals."

The father said slowly, "She mentioned a monkey named Boots. At home, she always drew pictures of different animals and she would pretend she was exploring different places in our backyard with her imaginary friends."

"What about real friends?"

"She…doesn't have any. Every day, before and after school, she would just go out into the backyard and play pretend."

"Hmm, I think her imaginary world may have contributed to her acceptance to the SIMEX."

"Doctor," the mother stared at the psychologist with teary eyes, "will she ever return to normal?"

"As of yet, there is no cure that can completely erase the effects of the SIMEX. Because Dora is young, however, she might be able to dismiss the SIMEX as a childish game when she is older. Her awakening at Section 6 headquarters, on the other hand, might not be dismissed so easily."

"But she doesn't even remember us, her _real_ family!"

"Yes," the psychologist lowered his head, "rewritten memories are a problem. The only thing I can suggest is to stay close to her and to be good, loving parents to her. Until a cure can be found, only time can possibly heal these wounds."

When she realized the gravity of the situation, the mother finally broke down and sobbed into her husband's arms. Both he and the psychologist looked through the window at Dora, who was doing nothing but sitting idly, lost in her thoughts.

***

In Japan, a man was sitting in his car, looking through Section 9's records of the Puppet Master case. He reviewed them daily in hopes of finding some sort of clue, but the only connection he had made was that all of his or her victims were either members of Section 6 or people who were trying to get close to someone of Section 6. He was now looking through the list of the Puppet Master's victims and saw that it had been updated. He pulled up a file and he cringed at what he saw.

The most recent SIMEX victim was from South America. Why the Puppet Master would strike there, he had no clue, but that was not what bothered him. What bothered him was that the victim was a seven year old girl named Dora Marquez.

"That son of a bitch…" The man gritted his teeth. What kind of monster would use a little girl for his or her own twisted purposes? Since he had a daughter of his own back at home, he had a reason to be angry.

**Togusa**.

The man quickly put away the files before answering back. 

**What is it, Major?**

**Looking into the Puppet Master files, are we?**

Togusa sighed.

**I was hoping I would find some sort of clue that would lead us to the Puppet Master.**

**So, did you find anything?**

**Nothing new…except for the new victim, but why would he attack a little girl in South America?**

**None of us know why he went to South America in the first place; maybe he wanted to take his work somewhere else, maybe he was fleeing from authorities, I don't know.**

Togusa brought up the files again and looked over Dora's more closely.

**Whatever the reason, I think the Puppet Master has something against Section 6 in general.**

**The target was a higher ranking official named Anna Marquez. She had strong barriers implanted, so instead of the Puppet Master trying to hack her directly, he hacked her granddaughter, gave her a Direct Hacking unit, and sent her to do the task.**

**Whoa, wait a minute, Direct Hacking units are hard to defend from, but how did that guy get ahold of one?**

**Black Market, most likely. Fortunately, the girl was stopped in time before she could plug the unit in.**

**But…why did he have to hack a little girl? She never did anything wrong!**

**She is Anna's granddaughter, and who would expect someone of their own family to be a victim of a hack? According to the psychological analysis, the girl had a big imagination in the first place, so it didn't take much for her cyberbrain to accept the SIMEX. Throughout the whole experience, she believed she was in her own little world while she was manipulated to try to hack her own grandmother.**

**That bastard…!**

**Cool your head, Togusa.**

**Easy for you to say, you don't have a daughter at home.**

**No, I don't, but that's no excuse to lose your temper.**

Togusa took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself down.

**I'm signing out.**

**See you, then.**

From the other side of the conversation, a woman closed the link between her and her co-worker. She was sitting on top of a roof of a tall building and she was looking over the whole city.

The city at night was breathtaking, but Major Motoko Kusanagi was used to seeing it every day. When she was not diving in her spare time, she was on top of a roof, staring at the city lights. She usually came here to clear her thoughts, or to reflect on Section 9's most recent case. In this case, it was the latter.

The Major thought about the details on the little girl's SIMEX experience. From the details, the girl was experiencing a world filled with talking animals, bright rainforests, and dangers that would never really befall her. The thing that got the Major was that that world was in the girl's imagination in the first place, so all the Puppet Master really had to do was make that world a reality in her mind and have it take place over her real life.

Funny, how easily a child will believe anything he or she imagines. For Dora, her imaginary world was her reality. How long, then, would it take for her to accept this new reality? Even more so, in the vast entirety of the Net, is this new reality a true reality…or is it just another equivalent to Dora's world?

The Major snapped her head up. She had a feeling that those thoughts were not her own. She wondered if she was tired…or if it was a whisper from her Ghost.


End file.
